Handling My Difficulties In Teaching English Vocabulary To Preschool Children During My Internship As A Teacher Assistant At TKK 246 BPK Penabur Bandung.

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ABSTRACT

Mengajar anak-anak usia tiga sampai empat tahun atau anak-anak prasekolah tidaklah mudah. Dalam proses belajar mengajar ada banyak kesulitan yang dihadapi di dalam kelas. Salah satu kesulitan yang saya hadapi selama kegiatan magang saya di TKK 246 BPK Penabur

khususnya di kelas “Sun Class”adalah saya mengalami kesulitan dalam mengajarkan kosa kata bahasa Inggris kepada anak-anak prasekolah.

Menurut hasil pengamatan dan analisa di kelas, ada beberapa faktor yang dapat menyebabkan kesulitan dalam mengajarkan kosa kata kepada anak-anak. Penyebab yang pertama adalah teknik yang saya gunakan tidak menarik bagi anak-anak, dan kurangnya komunikasi yang baik dengan anak-anak.

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

In the process of learning a language, vocabulary learning plays a very

important role. In the article “Activities that Teach Kindergarten Students

Vocabulary Skills”, Sara Ipatenco states that “Vocabulary is an essential

part of kindergarten literacy instruction. When children are exposed to a

range of words and their meanings, they often become better readers who

understand and can comprehend a variety of different texts and genres”

(par.1). From the quotation in the article above, it is clear that vocabulary

learning is significant for kindergarten children for their reading

comprehension in the future.

However, teaching preschool children is not easy, especially for the

first time teacher, as Garvie said in his book entitled Teaching English to

Children that “Long years of experience have shown the most

important.Without a suitable teacher, teaching young children becomes

impracticable” (98). From the quotation, it is clear that is important to have

a teacher that can suit the needs of young children to make the teaching

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my internship at TKK 246 BPK Penabur, I found that the preschool

children in Sun Class were not interested in learning English vocabulary.

For instance, some children ran around the class, and sometimes when I

was explaining the material, they were busy with their friends for chatting

or playing.

I did my internship at TKK 246 BPK Penabur as an English teacher

assistant to help Mrs. Anik, the English teacher at TKK 246 BPK Penabur.

When I had to substitute Mrs. Anik, the English teacher in Sun class, I

found the difficulty that the preschool children in the class became easily

bored while studying English vocabulary when I taught them, the lesson

lasted for thirty minutes. During the period, only around the first ten

minutes did the children seemed interested with the lesson. The rest of the

time was spent by the children being busy with themselves. I find the topic

important to discuss as vocabulary is the main focus in the English lesson

for kindergarten children. Thus, in this term-paper, I would like to analyze

this problem to find the solution. I will try to find out the causes and the

effects of the problem, so that I can propose some potential solutions.

B. Identification of The Problem

What I am going to explain in this paper is formulated in the following

questions:

1. Why did I have difficulties in teaching English vocabulary to

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2. How did my difficulty affect teaching and learning process during

my internship?

3. How should I teach the children so that they are not easily bored

in learning English vocabulary?

C. Objectives and Benefits of The Study

The objectives of the study are to identify the causes and effects of the

problem in teaching English vocabulary to preschool children who are

easily bored at TKK 246 BPK Penabur and also to find out how the

difficulty affected the teaching and learning during the internship.

Moreover, I can find the solutions the handle children who are easily bored

when learning English vocabulary.

There are several benefits of the study. First for the institution,

especially for English teachers, they will know the causes why children

can be easily bored in class and how to teach English vocabulary

correctly. Furthermore, for the readers, they will know the strategy and

techniques for teaching English vocabulary to preschool children. In

addition, for me, I can know more about how to teach preschool children

using good strategies and techniques.

D. Description of the Institution

Based on the information in the school’s official website, TKK 246 BPK

Penabur Bandung was established in 1955. From that moment on, the

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Java. The location of the kindergarten is on Jalan Sudirman no.246

Bandung. Besides kindergarten, there is also an elementary school. TKK

246 BPK Penabur has developed much in building structure and in

organization sector in the location. Currently, this school is led by Miss

Indriane as the headmistress. There are nineteen teachers and two staffs

who work for TKK 246 BPK Penabur.

The vision and mission of TKK 246 BPK Penabur:

 Vision: To become a qualified Christian educational institution in

Faith, Knowledge, and Service.

 Mission: To develop students’ potentials optimally through good

quality education and teaching based on Christian values.

E. Method of Study

The methods applied for doing the study are library research and field

research. The library research was done to find theories from books and

articles on the internet. The field research was held to get data from my

observation during my internship. The data was recorded in a journal that I

wrote based on my internship from January 13th, 2014 until February 27,

2014.

F. Limitation of the Study

The subject of my research is myself when teaching English vocabulary

to preschool children at Sun Class at TKK 246 BPK Penabur. There

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observation is done during my internship in Sun Class started on January

13th until February 27th 2014.

G. Organization of the Paper

This term paper starts with the Abstract, Declaration of Originality,

Acknowledgements, Table of Contents, and consists of four chapters.

Chapter One is the Introduction, with consists of the Background of the

Study, Identification of the Problem, Objectives and Benefits of the Study,

Description of the Institution, Method of the Study, Limitation of the Study,

and Organization of the Term Paper. Chapter Two is the Problem

Analysis, in which I explain the causes and effects of the problem. Chapter

Three is the potential solutions, which contains three potential solutions,

with the analysis of their positive and negative effects. The last chapter,

chapter Four is the Conclusion, in which I will give the best solution that

can solve the problem. Moreover, the term-paper ends with a Bibliography

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CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION

In this chapter, I will explain the best solution to the problem when I had

my internship. My problem is difficulties in teaching English vocabulary to

preschool children at TKK 246 BPK Penabur. Based on the analysis, the

problem has two causes and two effects. The first cause is I did not use

interesting strategy when teaching vocabulary to the children and the second

cause is I could not communicate well with the children. The two effects of my

problem are the lesson became less enjoyable for the children and I had to

repeat the material in the next meeting.

I propose three potential solutions to overcome my problem in teaching

English vocabulary to preschool children. The first potential solution is I will

use vocabulary games during my lessons. The second potential solution is I

will use performance activity such as puppetry. The third potential solution is I

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After I analyze the positive and negative effects of the three potential

solutions, I decide that the best solution for my problem is combining all the

three of them. I believe games, songs, nursery rhymes and puppets can help

me to make teaching English vocabulary to preschool children more

interesting. I can vary my teaching techniques so that the children can learn

English vocabulary in a more fun way. Using games, songs, rhymes, and

puppets can make it easier for the children to remember the vocabulary learnt

on that day. Moreover, using games, songs and puppets can make the

children be confident in speaking English. In addition, the fun atmosphere in

class will make me more relaxed so that it will be easier for me to

communicate with the children.

In the end of the paper, I would like to offer a suggestion for the first time

teachers to teach preschool children.They should equip themselves with

games, puppets, songs, and nursery rhymes. Being prepared is the key to

teach well. Thus, it is a must a for pre-school teachers to familiarize

themselves with various activities and teaching aids which are suitable for

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Printed Sources

Garvie. Eddie Teaching English to Young Children. Clevedon, 1990

Killen, Roy. Effective Teaching Strategies. Katoomba: Social Science Press,

1998

Killen, Roy. Teaching Strategies for Outcome-Based Education. Cape: Juta &

Co, 2007

Electronic Sources

BPK Penabur Bandung. 7 January 2015

<http://www.bpkpenabur.or.id/id/region/bandung/history>

Brown, Annabelle. “Activities for Teaching Family Vocabulary to

Preschoolers”ehow.com.22 October 2014

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Frances, Careen. “How to Teach ESL to Kindergarten

Children”eslteachersboard.com.13 June 2014

<http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/lessons/index.pl?read=4869>

Huyen,Nguyen Thi Thanh. “Learning Vocabulary Through Games”. Diago

Sofrano. 3 May 2012

<http://www.scribd.com/doc/93384437/Learning-Vocabulary-Through-Games#scribd>

Ipatenco, Sara. “Activities That Teach Kindergarten Students Vocabulary

Skills”.education.seattlepi.com.2007.06 March 2014

<http://education.seattlepi.com/activities-teach-kindergarten-students-vocabulary-skills-3744.html>

Mawaddah, Yulia. Using Game in Teaching Vocabulary. Thesis, Syarif

Hidayattulah State Islamic University Jakarta. Ann Arbor: ProQuest/UMI,

2010.<http://repository.uinjkt.ac.id/dspace/bitstream/123456789/5805/1/YU

LIA%20MAWADDAH-FITK>

Morin, Amanda. “4 Reasons Kids Are Bored at School”

childparenting.about.com.15 June

2014<http://childparenting.about.com/od/schoollearning/a/4-reasons-kids-are-bored-at-school.htm>

Snuggs, Carla. “Techniques to Teach Preschoolers Vocabulary”31 Aug 2014

ehow.com.20 June

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Walsh, Kathryn. “Activities & Themes for Preschool Puppets”

ehow.com.2005. 22 October 2014

<http://www.ehow.com/info_8580415_activities-themes-preschool-puppets.html>

YourDictionary. ”ESL Songs” esl.yourdictionary.com. 11 November 2014